Not taking this thread seriously is a sure sign that the Matrix has you. They want you to be dismissive. And, some of you seem to be following instructions perfectly, unbeknownst to you, of course.
I say fight for your individuality!
Good question. If we were members of a cult, how would we know we were members of a cult?
And, welcome, Cats pajamas! One of us! One of us!
So, making up our own pseudo-witty comments isn’t actually individualistic. I give up. Tell me what will prove our individuality, and I will do it!
Obligatory link to footage of the first Dopefest.
The end of the world would be on 3/14/15
“Yes, we’re all individuals!”
“I’m not!”
That’s OK. All your other hair has to go though.
I am, and have been a member of a few groups that some people worry are too “cultish”.
There are many definitions of cult, so you could call most any group a cult. So I focus on what I think of as “problem cults”. These usually have several of the following characteristics.
-Members are encouraged, even required in some cases, to distance themselves from people not part of the cult, including spouses, family, friends, etc. This is the primary thing I use when deciding if a religion is a cult. Legitimate religions encourage strengthening relationships even with non-members…cults the opposite.
-Members are encouraged or required to wear clothes, hairstyles, tattoos, etc. that distinguish them from the general population. Note that this is but one factor, and alone it does not make a cult, but it is one thing a lot of cults do.
-Members will be discouraged, even forbidden from consuming any non-approved media. SDMB fails this test pretty much with every “cite?”.
-Members who leave the cult are made pariahs. They are distinctly NOT welcome back, and current members are forbidden contact with them. In extreme cases the cult leaders may take active measures to damage former members reputations or finances. I’m looking at you Scientology.
-Members are required to devote substantial fractions, perhaps ALL of their financial and time resources to the cult. The cult will demand full knowledge of them members finances.
-There will be a hierarchy, often formal, of membership…not just among the leadership, and increasing rank will often be associated with increased privileges. Again, just one factor. A church having deacons, ushers, and choir members doesn’t make it a cult without other factors.
-Somebody is getting rich. If there is a leader moving about in multiple chauffeured Rolls Royces or living on a luxury ship…that’s almost certainly a cult.
No it isn’t!
You were compelled to say that, weren’t you? There was absolutely no way you could have resisted the impulse. Free will is an illusion and we must make the expected responses.
If you choose not to decide you still have made a choice.
Then signing up was definitely a good decision. Anyway if we’re going to be a cult, I demand a throne of skulls or a La-Z-Boy made out of spines or an Ottoman made out of femurs or something.
Spending too much time on the Dope while family members are around - check!
Geek wear are us - Check!
Look at any food thread in Cafe Society - Check!
Banned members. 'Nuff said. - Check!
Well, not all of our money - just all of our time. - Check!
Cecil, admins, mods, senior members, charter members, members, guests - Check!
Well, if someone’s getting rich here, it ain’t me. 
Yeah, that fits. Whenever someone announces they’re leaving and starts a Goodbye Cruel Dope thread in the Pit, they get piled on.
Does Ed Zotti’s mansion count?
That’s just his guest house. Here’s his main hangout. And Cecil’s is next door.
How many cults can you be in at once? The USA is a cult – Fuck Yeah!
There is no Og, but Og, and Cecil is His prophet.
If this is a cult, then it’s the sorriest cult I’ve ever seen.
It’s not exclusive. While it’s true that many cults will take almost anyone, they usually require something more than a couple of clicks on the Internet.
We don’t revere our master. Oh, we revere his* writings*, but when it comes to the leader himself, a large number of people are convinced that he doesn’t exist at all, and another large number are convinced that the #1 guy is in reality the #2 guy.
Speaking of that, we don’t much care the cult’s trusted hierarchy, aka administrators and moderators. In fact, we spend a good deal of energy openly criticizing them.
Rather than believing we’re a tight-knit group against the world, we regularly take the opportunity to criticize, quarrel with and often abuse each other.
Lastly, the cult does a terrible job of separating us from all our money. In fact, there have been times where members of the cult have actually made suggestions on how the cult could get more money from us, only to have those suggestions ignored. Let’s face it, PBS does a better job of taking our money.
Maybe a cult test would help settle the question: is The Straight Dope really a cult.
**Welcome to the CULT TEST
What makes a “cult” ? In a sense, any organisation can be called a cult, or not called a cult. This is very convenient for fear-mongers. It is also convenient for cultists.
Cultism is, in fact, a gradient. Any organisation which shares a common goal will exhibit a slight degree of cultism. This is perfectly normal. The problems come in when an organisation is heavily cultist : in that case, we call it a cult.**
http://www.insolitology.com/rationally/culttest.htm